Bree Mobley
Professor Kim Fortun
Sustainability Problems
9 December 2011 Final Exam
7. In a 2010 NY Magazine article, Jon Stewart describes his media teams as “Soil enriches. Maybe we can add a little fertilizer to the soil so that real people can come along and grow things.” What does Stewart mean, and how persuaded are you by the metaphor?
By describing himself and his media team as “soil enrichers”, Jon Stewart reveals his own attitude towards his program and position in political media and news. Due to a political atmosphere in the last decade charged with terrorist attacks, two wars, and a global economic breakdown, and the transformation of media, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has risen in popularity to an astonishing 2.3 million viewers, beating out major Fox News shows. With a media strategy of overexposure, drama, and opinions that have altered America’s politician to be “actors in scripts created by cable producers”, mainstream TV networks have steadily shed seriousness and viewers. In response, Stewart’s show has transformed a genre of talk-show comedy into counter programming-postmodern entertainment with political purpose. This speaks to how much influence Jon has. With this influence and unique position, Jon has been able to speak out where conventional media has not. For example, the months following September 11th were characterized by fear, anger, and national uneasiness with politics and foreign policy. With his Daily Show platform, Stewart was able to express his anger, “becoming a voice of comic sanity in the whirlwind of real and manufactured fear”. In 2004, as a guest on CNN’s Crossfire, a debate show designed to present and challenge opinions from the Democratic and Republican parties, Stewart exercised the public power of his opinion. He accused the program of failing in its responsibility to the public discourse and reducing news coverage of important issues to points from either extreme of the political spectrum; he pleaded with the show’s hosts to “‘stop hurting America’ by peddling mindless bickering as partisan debate”. The show was soon removed from CNN’s late night lineup, with no correlation revealed. Whatever platform the public or media has given him, Stewart still considers himself a comedian: “…the nice thing about being a comedian is never having a full belief in yourself to know the answer. So you can say all this stuff, but underneath, you’re going, ‘But of course, I’m fucking idiotic.’ It’s why we don’t lead a lot of marches.” Stewart finds solace in the fact that his occupation is a comedian. His outwardly expressed disappointment in current news and media outlets is evident in his humor: “[Jon] clings to the naïve hope that the legitimate news media will get its act together and become a resolute force for truth and good government.” He and his show don’t claim to be any sort of reliable political news source, but rather an additional reference to provide a different perspective. This is how he can refer to himself as a “soil enricher.” By highlighting the absurdity of current politics and their presentation on news sources, Stewart can stir up political passion and ideally inspire change and progress.
This metaphor used is moderately convincing; I think that it is bold of Stewart to claim to be soil enrichers. I would have rather gone with a possible “soil additive”. Where his humor can add an option of additional reason and perspective to revolutionaries but does improve the growth of ideas.
8. Design a film intended to educate a particular audience about a sustainability problem. Describe the audience you intend to reach, and its characteristics (biases, ignorance, expertise, etc); the aim of the film; its narrative structure and its content.
To shed light on a sustainability problem, my film would be about the importance of choosing alternative modes of transportation in America and shifting living habits to accommodate such alternatives. It would start by introducing to the audience a base of facts and knowledge about the history of transportation in America. It would parallel with facts about the industrial revolution, the change of urban areas, suburban sprawl, the building of highways, the cost of owning a private automobile, and the environmental impacts of cars, trucks, trains, and planes. This factual basis would be enriched with interviews with experts in the field of transportation and sustainable living. The second part of the film would shift chronologically from the history of transportation to the current transportation crisis in America. This section would spend time in explaining the infrastructure problems of cities, the decreasing amount of desirable land we are dealing with, the demand that overpopulation puts into play and current figures on transportation pollution. The third part of the film would focus on the attitude adjustment, cultural shift, and societally acceptance change that needs to occur in order to successfully alter the environmentally destructive path down which methods of transportation has led Americans. To elaborate more on this, and example is how the private vehicle is seen as a symbol of independence for young drivers and an essential commodity for every adult. Another example is the distance between industry and residential regions; this distance defines whether a private automobile is necessary. The narrative structure would be the head researcher speaking omnisciently to put explanation to the images being shown. In addition, the narrator would also be featured in some of the interviews. The interviewing would have a more conversational tone than question-and-answer tone. The audience that this film would ideally intend to reach would be a younger audience, like the Millennial generation and Generation X, people interested in change. It would be able to be understood by a much larger audience including the Baby Boomer generation and the Baby Buster. However, I think that the possibility for actual change is much higher in younger generations who are not as settled in their ways; their lifestyles are traditionally more malleable. To characterize the two generations the film intends to reach, Millennials are people under the age of 25 who value flexibility, choice, meaningful experiences, and tolerance. Between the ages of 25 and 35, Generation X typically values enjoyment of life and flexibility. These characteristics are ripe for producing change; this film would most effectively reach out to those two generations. However, some biases and ignorances might hinder their reception of the film. For example, it is difficult to imagine a society different than the one you grew up with. Also, if the audiences’ life aspirations mirror the aspirations of their parents (i.e. owning a large home, a yard, having a large family, driving to work), the change suggested in this film would conflict with this. Despite this, this film should do an efficient job at explaining a dire sustainability problem and provide suggestions for possible change.
4. Describe how the advertising industry is a sustainability problem. Discuss the environmental implications of “communication for commerce”, the effort to create emotional connections between consumers, commodities, and companies, and the cultivation of “loyalty beyond reason” (The Persuaders). Also discuss whether sustainability advocates should borrow techniques from the advertising industry to advance their message.
The advertising industry has become a sustainability problem with environmental implications due to its large influence over not only what Americans buy, but how they view themselves and the world around them. The PBS documentary The Persuaders explores this influence and the uprising of market strategies that take branding and products to the next level of meaning. In the past few decades, advertising and marketing has evolved from simply selling a product to creating emotional connections between consumers, commodities, and companies. Examining brands that have already accomplished this, like Apple, Nike, and Saturn, in addition to studying what drives humans into cults, top marketers have realized a commonality: people want to find meaning in something and to belong. Thus creating the terms “spiritual branding” and emotional branding”. Advertisers want to create more meaning behind simply purchasing athletic shoes, for example. They want the consumer to feel that with these shoes, they can fulfill the humanistic needs of community, narrative, and transcendence. Kevin Roberts, the CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi Worldwide, a global advertising agency, has created a term for products that compliments what he calls the “age of the idea”, the era which we, as consumers, now live: a Lovemark. A Lovemark is a brand that has moved to an emotional position in consumer’s lives, a brand for which the consumer has “loyalty beyond reason”. Such brands are “infused with mystery, sensuality, and intimacy” and hold an iconic place in your heart. A Lovemark represents more than itself for a particular consumer. In the film, Tim Mapes, the Marketing Director for a newly launched branch of Delta Airlines called Song Airlines, delivers the message, “this is a business, [not just] an art form, we have got to ensure that it’s communication that drives commerce and not just makes people feel good.” This expresses the underlying aim of all advertisements, no matter how elaborate: they want you to purchase something. These modern characteristics of advertising prove to be a dangerous formula for the environment. Consumers hoping to fulfill complex emotions such as community, acceptance, and meaning with a purchase causes dissatisfaction which can only lead to more purchases in an even greater effort to reach those fulfillments. Excess product creation and consumerism drives high demand for extraction, usage, and burning of natural resources, a major cause of climate change, resource depletion, and exploitation of the environment.
Sustainability advocates can mirror the strategies of advertisers and marketers to more effectively convey a message of sustainability awareness and concern. These clever and effective marketing techniques could be beneficial to the global environment if applied to messages that inspire similar passion and devotion that certain brands evoke in their consumers.
2. Describe how science can be a sustainability problem; referencing at least four examples from films you watched this semester.
Science has contributed to fundamental aspects of modern society that most people do not even realize. Shaping thought through the Scientific Revolution, Industrial Revolution, and now the Information Revolution we have experienced in the past few decades, science has also become a facilitator for modern day sustainability problems. For example, advancements in water irrigation and groundwater pumping has enabled otherwise dry landscapes to sustain cities, suburbs, and even farmland. In the documentary film “Blue Gold”, author Robert Glennon understands that humans have found ways to pump groundwater for thousands of years, but that due to scientific advances, we now “pump approximately 30 billion gallons of groundwater every day”. Industry and agriculture create a large demand for groundwater extraction that is exceeding the amount of water that soaks back into the ground after it rains; this is causing giant sinkholes, the subsidence of an entire landscape, and contributing to the rising global water crisis. Another example is scientific advancements in large scale fishing operations have caused a disruption in the population of our global fisheries. As seen in the film “The End of the Line”, high-tech fish harvesting with the use of large nets and techniques like trolling have, similarly to the groundwater crisis, put the rate of fishing ahead of the rate of reproduction of fish. We are catching fish at a rate faster than their species can maintain itself. This is causing large-scale changes to aquatic ecosystems and food chains, putting many fish species in danger of extinction, effecting local fisherman whose lifestyles depend upon fisheries nearby, and causing damage to the ocean floor. Another film to touch upon advancements of science that facilitate sustainability problems is the documentary “Food, Inc”. With the creation of the assembly line and rise of factory farming due to an increasing demand for cow meat, chicken, pork, and eggs, foodborne illnesses like mad-cow disease have entered our food system and many pollutants like ammonia and nitric oxide and toxic water run-off from industrial farms have entered our environment. “Food, Inc” also touched upon the sustainability problem of genetically engineered crops. This incredible scientific advancement, first introduced into the food market in 1994, is now a staple in crops such as corn, soybeans, and cotton. Studies have shown that genetically engineered food can pose serious risks to humans by raising the risk of toxicity, allergenicity, and immune-suppression, to animals by threatening extinction, and to the environment by uncontrollable biological pollution and the potential of contamination of all non-genetically engineering life forms with possibly hazardous genetic material. Science has provided many improvements to our lives and our necessities, however; it should not be overlooked as a possible cause for sustainability problems.
13. Imagine that you are teaching high school seniors about environmental controversies. How would you advise them to make sense of the controversy around hydrofracking for natural gas? What questions would you encourage them to ask in analyzing all environmental controversies they encounter? In answering this question, you can draw on news accessible here: http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org.
As a high school teacher covering the subject of environmental controversies, specifically hydrofracking of natural gas, I would structure my class in a way that is accepting of opinions based on facts and that encourages students to uncover research that provides insight from all angles of the issue being discussed. That being said, hydrofracking for natural gas has multiple different elements of controversy, providing many angles for argument against and in support of such extraction techniques. To ensure that an adequate understanding of hydrofracking is distributed amongst all my students, I would reserve an entire week’s lesson plan to describing what hydrofracking is, its history in America, its purpose, and where and how it’s being used today. I would want my students to draw their information from newspapers articles from the press and online as well as blog articles, information provided on state websites, environmental websites, and sources from the school’s library. To create an atmosphere that represents both ends of the spectrum, I would schedule a debate on the ethics of hydrofracking having one team represent oil companies and the other represent an environmental protection agency.
General questions that I would encourage my students to ask in analyzing any environmental controversy:
If you lived in the town where this environmental controversy was occurring, how would you feel about moving to remove the process completely? In what ways has this controversy affected your upbringing, daily life, and environment?
Imagine you are an elected local politician living and representing an area that plays hosts to an environmental controversy on the national level. What legislative actions would you take in listening to both the national concern for the environment and the needs citizens in your jurisdiction who make a living and contribute to the local economy and community under employment for the company performing the environmental controversy?
How would you get the attention of political leaders so that your opinion and potential steps toward improvement of an environmental controversy would be heard?
9. Many Americans are skeptical about climate change, and climate science. What do you think explains the skepticism? What do you think scientists should do to further enroll the public in concern about climate change? The following articles will provide material for your argument: The Perception Factor: Climate Change Gets Personal and Heroes wanted in climate science story. Reference both articles for your answer.
Talks of climate change and climate science amongst scientists, corporations, and policy-makers have taken place over the past 50 years, since before the American energy crisis in 1970s. However, this conversation has not successfully been translated to words that the greater public can digest and has resulted in much skepticism. This skepticism could be the effect of a number of things including disconnect between legislators and the scientific community, disconnect between the public and the scientific community, and absence of research in peoples’ perception of facts. The article, The Perception Factor: Climate Change Gets Personal, says that perhaps an “[improvement in] interdisciplinary research across physical, social, biological, health, and engineering sciences” might put science into perspective for policymakers. It proves difficult for scientific research to effectively reach and move to action the American public. This could be that typically Americans tend to be very selective about which sources of information they trust, they have incomplete, often oversimplified information, people do not think that their individual contributions will make a difference, and they don’t believe that climate change will ever affect them or anyone they know. In his research, Sammy Zahran, co-director of the Center for Disaster and Risk Analysis at Colorado State University, found that “cities in regions that are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change but that emit the least greenhouse gases are most likely to act to reduce their carbon emissions [while] cities in less vulnerable areas with sources that emit high levels of greenhouse gases (such as Jefferson County, Arkansas, home to the coal-fired White Bluff Power Plant) are less likely to agree to take mitigation action.” This proves that, perhaps in conjunction with the size of the United States, it is difficult for Americans to take action on policies concerning climate change because individuals perceive their burden to be disproportionate to that of others in the country. Another gap in climate change science that causes skepticism involves people’s perception of facts and how that shapes decision-making: according to Pamela Matson, dean of the School of earth Sciences at Stanford University, scientists should complement existing research on understanding climate change and its impacts with studies of behavioral science. This will help in improving the understanding of individual, societal, and institutional factors that shape decision-making in humans. In order to tackle this dire communication problem, scientists should work to adjust their approach. Work on pushing policies through that Americans deem as feasible; characteristics of this include information that is accessible and from a trustworthy source, action that is relatively easy to undertake, and will provide a quick financial payback. Additionally, following research on an audience’s reception to environmental issues inscribed within stories in contrast to just lists, the article Heroes wanted in climate science story, suggests that “scientists would be better off presenting their results in a narrative targeted to their audience’s likes and dislikes.” I feel this might already be in effect in published articles for niche magazines and websites, however; implementation of this target information for a target audience could be implemented in any branch of media. Although some scientists might be reluctant to resort to “store-telling” to stress the severity of climate change, the potential of effective action is too important to not attempt.
10. Explain, from you point of view, what the US government should do to advance environmental sustainability. What should the US government not do? Together, your lists should include at least six items. Include concrete examples to illustrate your points.
The US government has the regulatory ability to instate policies and laws that make improvements upon our nation’s environmental sustainability. For example, as the first period of the Kyoto Protocol, the world’s only legal pact to tackle climate change, comes to an end in 2012, the United States will have an opportunity to ratify the treaty finally. Discussions are currently occurring at the Global Climate Talks in Duban, South Africa. According to the Reuters online website article “Big Three” polluters oppose binding climate deal, “China, the United States and India together make up nearly half of the world’s CO2 emissions…The trio want to put off any commitment on binding cuts until 2015.” However, according to scientists, greenhouse gas emissions need to peak and start falling by 2020 to avoid devastating global effects. The United States should push to revise the treaty to establish harsher emission reductions on developing countries (like China and Inida) that, in the first stage of the treaty, were not held to the same binding standards as wealthy developed countries. Another example of what the US government can do is to follow suit with the EU (European Union) in instating a carbon tax on incoming and outgoing aviation. According to the article EU won’t budge over carbon tax for airlines published in the magazine The Mercury, “the carbon tax would progressively raise costs for airlines unable to reduce emission levels”; this would inadvertently force airlines to research alternatives in fuel and design. The US government also could reduce the regulations for small-scale hydropower projects and increase the regulations for centralized, large-scale hydropower projects. In order to build a small hydropower facility, one that uses “run of the river” tactics, does little impact to the surrounding environment, and produces no carbon offsets, developers must get approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commision, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Army Corps of Engineers, State Environmental Departments, and many more. According to the article on thinkprogress.org titled Small Hydro Has Strong Bipartisan Support. So Why Can’t We Get Our Act Together?, “the cumulative impact [of these agencies] weighs down small hydro and makes projects prohibitively expensive.” To advance environmental sustainability, the US government should embrace utility and government-sponsored rebate programs for weatherization, energy-efficient appliances, and solar panels in order to tackle the carbon emission from American households. According to Michael Vandenbergh, director of Climate Change Research Network at Vanderbilt University, “households in the US contribute roughly to a one third shard of total U.S. carbon emissions, accounting for approximately 8% of the world’s total…” The US government also has the power to veto and change policies in effect or recently proposed. For example, the US should not approve of the construction of the Keystone XL export pipeline, exporting crude oil for the Canadian Tar Sands to the US. According to the tarsandsaction.org website, the pipeline would severely affect our country’s energy security, gas prices, jobs, safety, and climate change; quoting specifically about safety, the website warns that “a rupture in the Keystone XL pipeline could cause a BP style oil spill in America’s heartland, over the source of fresh drinking water for 2 million people.” Another action the US should not take regarding environmental sustainability is to continue to allow the GDP of the country to treat any economic activity as a good thing. According to the article Business and Environmental Sustainability by Joe DesJardins, standard models of economic growth, like the GDP, should shift to give positive recognition to economic development rather than just growth. The Unites States government is in a vital position in the fight against global climate change and environmental sustainability and show begin to make lasting changes. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/06/us-climate-idUSTRE7B41NH20111206 http://www.iol.co.za/mercury/eu-won-t-budge-over-carbon-tax-for-airlines-1.1190476 http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/08/11/293918/small-hydro-has-strong-bi-partisan-support-so-why-cant-we-get-our-act-together/ http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info%3Adoi%2F10.1289%2Fehp.118-a484 http://www.tarsandsaction.org/spread-the-word/key-facts-keystone-xl/ http://sustainabilityproblems.wikispaces.com/file/view/DesJardinsBusiness-and-Environmental-Sustainability.pdf
1. Identify ways that corporations are a sustainability problem, referencing at least four examples from films you watched this semester.
In the mid-1800s corporations emerged as legal “person” attaining rights granted to people. This paved the way for the rise of corporations and their now dominance in the modern world. Externalities have become the norm allowing countless cases of illness, death, poverty, and pollution all of which are riding closely to sustainability problems. To give a illustrative example, the basic natural right to water has been recently privatized in certain areas by large corporations. Backed by the World Bank and the WTO, the French company water municipality turned private corporation, Suez, started a privatization program to provide accessible, clean water to developing countries such as Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, and Malaysia. This exact event, highlighted in the film Blue Gold: World Water Wars, claimed to increase efficiency, quality, reliability, and affordability of water; however, what it really did was violate standards of operation and engage in price fixing. Price fixing sets the cost for water high causing water stress among poor populations of these countries forcing people to drink contaminated or hazardous water. Another example of unsustainable corporate action is examined in the film Food, Inc. Part of the film takes the audience into a chicken farm owned by Carole Morrison, a farmer under contract with Perdue. Exposed are the poor conditions of the chickens as they are mass produced in small spaces and sometimes even darkness. Morrison explains that most farmers, herself included, are kept in debt by the large food corporations, and that in order to maintain a contract and livelihood, they allow the companies ultimate control over the conditions of the animals. These poor living conditions characteristic of factory farming produce contaminants, pollutants, and disease into our environment and diets. In the documentary film, The Corporation, a 1989 toxicology study on cows discovered that the growth hormone rBST, developed by the company Monsanto, was a powerful antibiotic that eventually found its way into our milk and dairy products. Banned in other countries like Canada and Japan, this hormone causes reduction in people’s resistance to disease. Monsanto, upon admitting the human effects, has yet to take responsibility for the drug and refuses to feel guilt for those who have been affected. In the online video The Story of Stuff, Annie Leonard talks about a linear system of production in a finite world of resources. She narrows in on the growth of the corporation as a cause of increasing levels of production and consumption in America. These increased levels force the extraction of natural environment, done most effectively in areas that consumers are not exposed to. This is a serious environmental issue with the root cause being the existence of corporations.
5. Discuss how Internet communication and other forms of new media are sustainability problems, as well as a means to sustainability solutions.
Since the rise of the internet in the mid-1990s to its news, culture, and social domination in today’s world, new media has teetered on both sides of the sustainability, either contributing to the problem or representing a means to its solutions. For example, modern emphasis on the importance of social media such as Facebook, LinkedIN, GooglePlus, and Twitter could stand as distractions for people who might otherwise be interested in sustainability research. New media like blogs, reddit.com, and imugr.com sites are often filled with useless information not adhering to any problem or solution, just rather viewed for entertainment or leisure. One of the characteristics of reddit.com is that it is not as focuses on mainstream news headlines. Yet people still consider it a news website, or rather an internet news site. With an audience of over 300 million people, the social networking site Facebook attracts a cumulative monthly readership of over 6 hours per person in the United States. This massive audience has provided social media and new media to begin to implement solutions to sustainability problems. With so many people on Facebook, pages and groups can be created to raise awareness of sustainability problems and establish an online community of supporters. Twitter.com for example hosts many environmental websites and magazine accounts that allows these mediums to speak directly to their supporters. This allows better fluidity in project choice and implementation. These new media sites puts the responsibility of spreading awareness into the hands of the audience; this shared responsibility might encourage more appreciation for the cause and make each person feel more important in the means towards a solution.
12. Identify ten developments (in education, law, media, etc) that you think would help mobilize greater public awareness of and commitment to environmental sustainability.
I think there is much potential for raising awareness of and commitment to environmental sustainability, but it will require dedicated revolutionaries and creativity. In the following I will propose ten possible developments that I think, if put into effect, could change the public atmosphere or developments that are already in effect. One development that could improve public awareness would be to create an sustainability propaganda campaign that produces commercials and an online movement, similar to the anti-tobacco company commercials made by “the truth” initiative. Another development could focus on initiating a sustainability course option in high school curriculums and a requirement in college curriculums. With more Americans attending college, shedding light onto a sustainability problems that students need to understand and eventually deal with would breathe awareness into the youth generation. The AASHE, or Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, leads programs and provides resources free for any college/university campus to use and begin to implement. Also, creating a more focuses celebration of Earth Day, extending beyond just April 22nd, mandated in public schools in every state would additionally raise awareness and appreciation for the environment at an even younger age. Implementing local small hydropower plants would increase community awareness and commitment to sustainability because of the closeness of an energy generator. Additionally, it would provide deeper appreciation for local environments. Granted this could only be successful in regions with adequate, yearly water supply. Another development to mobilize greater public awareness would be for health clinics and pharmacy companies to begin linking health issues to climate changes. Problems such as obesity and asthma might be direct effects of people’s habits that contribute to environmental pollution and thus sustainability problems. Shifting the environmental responsibility to state government and awarding low carbon emission states with externalities would create competiveness and incentives to drive down emissions from state funded and non-state funded corporations and plants. Providing company rebates or store rebates to customers who purchase environmentally friendly household appliances could reach the public in an area most are acutely aware of: money. One development that is gaining momentum in many affluent suburban and urban areas is the shift of public transport to reducing carbon emissions. Alternative fuel transit buses have been researched by the Federal and State government as a means to increase ridership, reduce costs, and reduce emissions. Implementing a development in popular grocery stores in cities and towns could also reach out to the public; completely eliminating or offering paper alternatives to plastic bags would raise awareness and acknowledgement of sustainability problems as well as reducing waste and encouraging recycling. Another development, already in place, would be web-based movements that are available for the public to reach out to. Websites like 350.org, Transition US, and ClimateCounts.org preach their own philosophies and solutions to sustainability problems, encouraging people to take action within their community and to become facilitators to spread awareness. With programs suggested above riding on programs already in place, individual people have an opportunity to learn about commit to a change in lifestyle to in regards to sustainability problems.
Professor Kim Fortun
Sustainability Problems
9 December 2011
Final Exam
7. In a 2010 NY Magazine article, Jon Stewart describes his media teams as “Soil enriches. Maybe we can add a little fertilizer to the soil so that real people can come along and grow things.” What does Stewart mean, and how persuaded are you by the metaphor?
By describing himself and his media team as “soil enrichers”, Jon Stewart reveals his own attitude towards his program and position in political media and news. Due to a political atmosphere in the last decade charged with terrorist attacks, two wars, and a global economic breakdown, and the transformation of media, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has risen in popularity to an astonishing 2.3 million viewers, beating out major Fox News shows. With a media strategy of overexposure, drama, and opinions that have altered America’s politician to be “actors in scripts created by cable producers”, mainstream TV networks have steadily shed seriousness and viewers. In response, Stewart’s show has transformed a genre of talk-show comedy into counter programming-postmodern entertainment with political purpose. This speaks to how much influence Jon has. With this influence and unique position, Jon has been able to speak out where conventional media has not. For example, the months following September 11th were characterized by fear, anger, and national uneasiness with politics and foreign policy. With his Daily Show platform, Stewart was able to express his anger, “becoming a voice of comic sanity in the whirlwind of real and manufactured fear”. In 2004, as a guest on CNN’s Crossfire, a debate show designed to present and challenge opinions from the Democratic and Republican parties, Stewart exercised the public power of his opinion. He accused the program of failing in its responsibility to the public discourse and reducing news coverage of important issues to points from either extreme of the political spectrum; he pleaded with the show’s hosts to “‘stop hurting America’ by peddling mindless bickering as partisan debate”. The show was soon removed from CNN’s late night lineup, with no correlation revealed. Whatever platform the public or media has given him, Stewart still considers himself a comedian: “…the nice thing about being a comedian is never having a full belief in yourself to know the answer. So you can say all this stuff, but underneath, you’re going, ‘But of course, I’m fucking idiotic.’ It’s why we don’t lead a lot of marches.” Stewart finds solace in the fact that his occupation is a comedian. His outwardly expressed disappointment in current news and media outlets is evident in his humor: “[Jon] clings to the naïve hope that the legitimate news media will get its act together and become a resolute force for truth and good government.” He and his show don’t claim to be any sort of reliable political news source, but rather an additional reference to provide a different perspective. This is how he can refer to himself as a “soil enricher.” By highlighting the absurdity of current politics and their presentation on news sources, Stewart can stir up political passion and ideally inspire change and progress.
This metaphor used is moderately convincing; I think that it is bold of Stewart to claim to be soil enrichers. I would have rather gone with a possible “soil additive”. Where his humor can add an option of additional reason and perspective to revolutionaries but does improve the growth of ideas.
8. Design a film intended to educate a particular audience about a sustainability problem. Describe the audience you intend to reach, and its characteristics (biases, ignorance, expertise, etc); the aim of the film; its narrative structure and its content.
To shed light on a sustainability problem, my film would be about the importance of choosing alternative modes of transportation in America and shifting living habits to accommodate such alternatives. It would start by introducing to the audience a base of facts and knowledge about the history of transportation in America. It would parallel with facts about the industrial revolution, the change of urban areas, suburban sprawl, the building of highways, the cost of owning a private automobile, and the environmental impacts of cars, trucks, trains, and planes. This factual basis would be enriched with interviews with experts in the field of transportation and sustainable living. The second part of the film would shift chronologically from the history of transportation to the current transportation crisis in America. This section would spend time in explaining the infrastructure problems of cities, the decreasing amount of desirable land we are dealing with, the demand that overpopulation puts into play and current figures on transportation pollution. The third part of the film would focus on the attitude adjustment, cultural shift, and societally acceptance change that needs to occur in order to successfully alter the environmentally destructive path down which methods of transportation has led Americans. To elaborate more on this, and example is how the private vehicle is seen as a symbol of independence for young drivers and an essential commodity for every adult. Another example is the distance between industry and residential regions; this distance defines whether a private automobile is necessary. The narrative structure would be the head researcher speaking omnisciently to put explanation to the images being shown. In addition, the narrator would also be featured in some of the interviews. The interviewing would have a more conversational tone than question-and-answer tone. The audience that this film would ideally intend to reach would be a younger audience, like the Millennial generation and Generation X, people interested in change. It would be able to be understood by a much larger audience including the Baby Boomer generation and the Baby Buster. However, I think that the possibility for actual change is much higher in younger generations who are not as settled in their ways; their lifestyles are traditionally more malleable. To characterize the two generations the film intends to reach, Millennials are people under the age of 25 who value flexibility, choice, meaningful experiences, and tolerance. Between the ages of 25 and 35, Generation X typically values enjoyment of life and flexibility. These characteristics are ripe for producing change; this film would most effectively reach out to those two generations. However, some biases and ignorances might hinder their reception of the film. For example, it is difficult to imagine a society different than the one you grew up with. Also, if the audiences’ life aspirations mirror the aspirations of their parents (i.e. owning a large home, a yard, having a large family, driving to work), the change suggested in this film would conflict with this. Despite this, this film should do an efficient job at explaining a dire sustainability problem and provide suggestions for possible change.
4. Describe how the advertising industry is a sustainability problem. Discuss the environmental implications of “communication for commerce”, the effort to create emotional connections between consumers, commodities, and companies, and the cultivation of “loyalty beyond reason” (The Persuaders). Also discuss whether sustainability advocates should borrow techniques from the advertising industry to advance their message.
The advertising industry has become a sustainability problem with environmental implications due to its large influence over not only what Americans buy, but how they view themselves and the world around them. The PBS documentary The Persuaders explores this influence and the uprising of market strategies that take branding and products to the next level of meaning. In the past few decades, advertising and marketing has evolved from simply selling a product to creating emotional connections between consumers, commodities, and companies. Examining brands that have already accomplished this, like Apple, Nike, and Saturn, in addition to studying what drives humans into cults, top marketers have realized a commonality: people want to find meaning in something and to belong. Thus creating the terms “spiritual branding” and emotional branding”. Advertisers want to create more meaning behind simply purchasing athletic shoes, for example. They want the consumer to feel that with these shoes, they can fulfill the humanistic needs of community, narrative, and transcendence. Kevin Roberts, the CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi Worldwide, a global advertising agency, has created a term for products that compliments what he calls the “age of the idea”, the era which we, as consumers, now live: a Lovemark. A Lovemark is a brand that has moved to an emotional position in consumer’s lives, a brand for which the consumer has “loyalty beyond reason”. Such brands are “infused with mystery, sensuality, and intimacy” and hold an iconic place in your heart. A Lovemark represents more than itself for a particular consumer. In the film, Tim Mapes, the Marketing Director for a newly launched branch of Delta Airlines called Song Airlines, delivers the message, “this is a business, [not just] an art form, we have got to ensure that it’s communication that drives commerce and not just makes people feel good.” This expresses the underlying aim of all advertisements, no matter how elaborate: they want you to purchase something. These modern characteristics of advertising prove to be a dangerous formula for the environment. Consumers hoping to fulfill complex emotions such as community, acceptance, and meaning with a purchase causes dissatisfaction which can only lead to more purchases in an even greater effort to reach those fulfillments. Excess product creation and consumerism drives high demand for extraction, usage, and burning of natural resources, a major cause of climate change, resource depletion, and exploitation of the environment.
Sustainability advocates can mirror the strategies of advertisers and marketers to more effectively convey a message of sustainability awareness and concern. These clever and effective marketing techniques could be beneficial to the global environment if applied to messages that inspire similar passion and devotion that certain brands evoke in their consumers.
2. Describe how science can be a sustainability problem; referencing at least four examples from films you watched this semester.
Science has contributed to fundamental aspects of modern society that most people do not even realize. Shaping thought through the Scientific Revolution, Industrial Revolution, and now the Information Revolution we have experienced in the past few decades, science has also become a facilitator for modern day sustainability problems. For example, advancements in water irrigation and groundwater pumping has enabled otherwise dry landscapes to sustain cities, suburbs, and even farmland. In the documentary film “Blue Gold”, author Robert Glennon understands that humans have found ways to pump groundwater for thousands of years, but that due to scientific advances, we now “pump approximately 30 billion gallons of groundwater every day”. Industry and agriculture create a large demand for groundwater extraction that is exceeding the amount of water that soaks back into the ground after it rains; this is causing giant sinkholes, the subsidence of an entire landscape, and contributing to the rising global water crisis. Another example is scientific advancements in large scale fishing operations have caused a disruption in the population of our global fisheries. As seen in the film “The End of the Line”, high-tech fish harvesting with the use of large nets and techniques like trolling have, similarly to the groundwater crisis, put the rate of fishing ahead of the rate of reproduction of fish. We are catching fish at a rate faster than their species can maintain itself. This is causing large-scale changes to aquatic ecosystems and food chains, putting many fish species in danger of extinction, effecting local fisherman whose lifestyles depend upon fisheries nearby, and causing damage to the ocean floor. Another film to touch upon advancements of science that facilitate sustainability problems is the documentary “Food, Inc”. With the creation of the assembly line and rise of factory farming due to an increasing demand for cow meat, chicken, pork, and eggs, foodborne illnesses like mad-cow disease have entered our food system and many pollutants like ammonia and nitric oxide and toxic water run-off from industrial farms have entered our environment. “Food, Inc” also touched upon the sustainability problem of genetically engineered crops. This incredible scientific advancement, first introduced into the food market in 1994, is now a staple in crops such as corn, soybeans, and cotton. Studies have shown that genetically engineered food can pose serious risks to humans by raising the risk of toxicity, allergenicity, and immune-suppression, to animals by threatening extinction, and to the environment by uncontrollable biological pollution and the potential of contamination of all non-genetically engineering life forms with possibly hazardous genetic material. Science has provided many improvements to our lives and our necessities, however; it should not be overlooked as a possible cause for sustainability problems.
13. Imagine that you are teaching high school seniors about environmental controversies. How would you advise them to make sense of the controversy around hydrofracking for natural gas? What questions would you encourage them to ask in analyzing all environmental controversies they encounter? In answering this question, you can draw on news accessible here: http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org.
As a high school teacher covering the subject of environmental controversies, specifically hydrofracking of natural gas, I would structure my class in a way that is accepting of opinions based on facts and that encourages students to uncover research that provides insight from all angles of the issue being discussed. That being said, hydrofracking for natural gas has multiple different elements of controversy, providing many angles for argument against and in support of such extraction techniques. To ensure that an adequate understanding of hydrofracking is distributed amongst all my students, I would reserve an entire week’s lesson plan to describing what hydrofracking is, its history in America, its purpose, and where and how it’s being used today. I would want my students to draw their information from newspapers articles from the press and online as well as blog articles, information provided on state websites, environmental websites, and sources from the school’s library. To create an atmosphere that represents both ends of the spectrum, I would schedule a debate on the ethics of hydrofracking having one team represent oil companies and the other represent an environmental protection agency.
General questions that I would encourage my students to ask in analyzing any environmental controversy:
If you lived in the town where this environmental controversy was occurring, how would you feel about moving to remove the process completely? In what ways has this controversy affected your upbringing, daily life, and environment?
Imagine you are an elected local politician living and representing an area that plays hosts to an environmental controversy on the national level. What legislative actions would you take in listening to both the national concern for the environment and the needs citizens in your jurisdiction who make a living and contribute to the local economy and community under employment for the company performing the environmental controversy?
How would you get the attention of political leaders so that your opinion and potential steps toward improvement of an environmental controversy would be heard?
9. Many Americans are skeptical about climate change, and climate science. What do you think explains the skepticism? What do you think scientists should do to further enroll the public in concern about climate change? The following articles will provide material for your argument: The Perception Factor: Climate Change Gets Personal and Heroes wanted in climate science story. Reference both articles for your answer.
Talks of climate change and climate science amongst scientists, corporations, and policy-makers have taken place over the past 50 years, since before the American energy crisis in 1970s. However, this conversation has not successfully been translated to words that the greater public can digest and has resulted in much skepticism. This skepticism could be the effect of a number of things including disconnect between legislators and the scientific community, disconnect between the public and the scientific community, and absence of research in peoples’ perception of facts. The article, The Perception Factor: Climate Change Gets Personal, says that perhaps an “[improvement in] interdisciplinary research across physical, social, biological, health, and engineering sciences” might put science into perspective for policymakers. It proves difficult for scientific research to effectively reach and move to action the American public. This could be that typically Americans tend to be very selective about which sources of information they trust, they have incomplete, often oversimplified information, people do not think that their individual contributions will make a difference, and they don’t believe that climate change will ever affect them or anyone they know. In his research, Sammy Zahran, co-director of the Center for Disaster and Risk Analysis at Colorado State University, found that “cities in regions that are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change but that emit the least greenhouse gases are most likely to act to reduce their carbon emissions [while] cities in less vulnerable areas with sources that emit high levels of greenhouse gases (such as Jefferson County, Arkansas, home to the coal-fired White Bluff Power Plant) are less likely to agree to take mitigation action.” This proves that, perhaps in conjunction with the size of the United States, it is difficult for Americans to take action on policies concerning climate change because individuals perceive their burden to be disproportionate to that of others in the country. Another gap in climate change science that causes skepticism involves people’s perception of facts and how that shapes decision-making: according to Pamela Matson, dean of the School of earth Sciences at Stanford University, scientists should complement existing research on understanding climate change and its impacts with studies of behavioral science. This will help in improving the understanding of individual, societal, and institutional factors that shape decision-making in humans. In order to tackle this dire communication problem, scientists should work to adjust their approach. Work on pushing policies through that Americans deem as feasible; characteristics of this include information that is accessible and from a trustworthy source, action that is relatively easy to undertake, and will provide a quick financial payback. Additionally, following research on an audience’s reception to environmental issues inscribed within stories in contrast to just lists, the article Heroes wanted in climate science story, suggests that “scientists would be better off presenting their results in a narrative targeted to their audience’s likes and dislikes.” I feel this might already be in effect in published articles for niche magazines and websites, however; implementation of this target information for a target audience could be implemented in any branch of media. Although some scientists might be reluctant to resort to “store-telling” to stress the severity of climate change, the potential of effective action is too important to not attempt.
10. Explain, from you point of view, what the US government should do to advance environmental sustainability. What should the US government not do? Together, your lists should include at least six items. Include concrete examples to illustrate your points.
The US government has the regulatory ability to instate policies and laws that make improvements upon our nation’s environmental sustainability. For example, as the first period of the Kyoto Protocol, the world’s only legal pact to tackle climate change, comes to an end in 2012, the United States will have an opportunity to ratify the treaty finally. Discussions are currently occurring at the Global Climate Talks in Duban, South Africa. According to the Reuters online website article “Big Three” polluters oppose binding climate deal, “China, the United States and India together make up nearly half of the world’s CO2 emissions…The trio want to put off any commitment on binding cuts until 2015.” However, according to scientists, greenhouse gas emissions need to peak and start falling by 2020 to avoid devastating global effects. The United States should push to revise the treaty to establish harsher emission reductions on developing countries (like China and Inida) that, in the first stage of the treaty, were not held to the same binding standards as wealthy developed countries. Another example of what the US government can do is to follow suit with the EU (European Union) in instating a carbon tax on incoming and outgoing aviation. According to the article EU won’t budge over carbon tax for airlines published in the magazine The Mercury, “the carbon tax would progressively raise costs for airlines unable to reduce emission levels”; this would inadvertently force airlines to research alternatives in fuel and design. The US government also could reduce the regulations for small-scale hydropower projects and increase the regulations for centralized, large-scale hydropower projects. In order to build a small hydropower facility, one that uses “run of the river” tactics, does little impact to the surrounding environment, and produces no carbon offsets, developers must get approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commision, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Army Corps of Engineers, State Environmental Departments, and many more. According to the article on thinkprogress.org titled Small Hydro Has Strong Bipartisan Support. So Why Can’t We Get Our Act Together?, “the cumulative impact [of these agencies] weighs down small hydro and makes projects prohibitively expensive.” To advance environmental sustainability, the US government should embrace utility and government-sponsored rebate programs for weatherization, energy-efficient appliances, and solar panels in order to tackle the carbon emission from American households. According to Michael Vandenbergh, director of Climate Change Research Network at Vanderbilt University, “households in the US contribute roughly to a one third shard of total U.S. carbon emissions, accounting for approximately 8% of the world’s total…” The US government also has the power to veto and change policies in effect or recently proposed. For example, the US should not approve of the construction of the Keystone XL export pipeline, exporting crude oil for the Canadian Tar Sands to the US. According to the tarsandsaction.org website, the pipeline would severely affect our country’s energy security, gas prices, jobs, safety, and climate change; quoting specifically about safety, the website warns that “a rupture in the Keystone XL pipeline could cause a BP style oil spill in America’s heartland, over the source of fresh drinking water for 2 million people.” Another action the US should not take regarding environmental sustainability is to continue to allow the GDP of the country to treat any economic activity as a good thing. According to the article Business and Environmental Sustainability by Joe DesJardins, standard models of economic growth, like the GDP, should shift to give positive recognition to economic development rather than just growth. The Unites States government is in a vital position in the fight against global climate change and environmental sustainability and show begin to make lasting changes.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/06/us-climate-idUSTRE7B41NH20111206
http://www.iol.co.za/mercury/eu-won-t-budge-over-carbon-tax-for-airlines-1.1190476
http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/08/11/293918/small-hydro-has-strong-bi-partisan-support-so-why-cant-we-get-our-act-together/
http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info%3Adoi%2F10.1289%2Fehp.118-a484
http://www.tarsandsaction.org/spread-the-word/key-facts-keystone-xl/
http://sustainabilityproblems.wikispaces.com/file/view/DesJardinsBusiness-and-Environmental-Sustainability.pdf
1. Identify ways that corporations are a sustainability problem, referencing at least four examples from films you watched this semester.
In the mid-1800s corporations emerged as legal “person” attaining rights granted to people. This paved the way for the rise of corporations and their now dominance in the modern world. Externalities have become the norm allowing countless cases of illness, death, poverty, and pollution all of which are riding closely to sustainability problems. To give a illustrative example, the basic natural right to water has been recently privatized in certain areas by large corporations. Backed by the World Bank and the WTO, the French company water municipality turned private corporation, Suez, started a privatization program to provide accessible, clean water to developing countries such as Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, and Malaysia. This exact event, highlighted in the film Blue Gold: World Water Wars, claimed to increase efficiency, quality, reliability, and affordability of water; however, what it really did was violate standards of operation and engage in price fixing. Price fixing sets the cost for water high causing water stress among poor populations of these countries forcing people to drink contaminated or hazardous water. Another example of unsustainable corporate action is examined in the film Food, Inc. Part of the film takes the audience into a chicken farm owned by Carole Morrison, a farmer under contract with Perdue. Exposed are the poor conditions of the chickens as they are mass produced in small spaces and sometimes even darkness. Morrison explains that most farmers, herself included, are kept in debt by the large food corporations, and that in order to maintain a contract and livelihood, they allow the companies ultimate control over the conditions of the animals. These poor living conditions characteristic of factory farming produce contaminants, pollutants, and disease into our environment and diets. In the documentary film, The Corporation, a 1989 toxicology study on cows discovered that the growth hormone rBST, developed by the company Monsanto, was a powerful antibiotic that eventually found its way into our milk and dairy products. Banned in other countries like Canada and Japan, this hormone causes reduction in people’s resistance to disease. Monsanto, upon admitting the human effects, has yet to take responsibility for the drug and refuses to feel guilt for those who have been affected. In the online video The Story of Stuff, Annie Leonard talks about a linear system of production in a finite world of resources. She narrows in on the growth of the corporation as a cause of increasing levels of production and consumption in America. These increased levels force the extraction of natural environment, done most effectively in areas that consumers are not exposed to. This is a serious environmental issue with the root cause being the existence of corporations.
5. Discuss how Internet communication and other forms of new media are sustainability problems, as well as a means to sustainability solutions.
Since the rise of the internet in the mid-1990s to its news, culture, and social domination in today’s world, new media has teetered on both sides of the sustainability, either contributing to the problem or representing a means to its solutions. For example, modern emphasis on the importance of social media such as Facebook, LinkedIN, GooglePlus, and Twitter could stand as distractions for people who might otherwise be interested in sustainability research. New media like blogs, reddit.com, and imugr.com sites are often filled with useless information not adhering to any problem or solution, just rather viewed for entertainment or leisure. One of the characteristics of reddit.com is that it is not as focuses on mainstream news headlines. Yet people still consider it a news website, or rather an internet news site. With an audience of over 300 million people, the social networking site Facebook attracts a cumulative monthly readership of over 6 hours per person in the United States. This massive audience has provided social media and new media to begin to implement solutions to sustainability problems. With so many people on Facebook, pages and groups can be created to raise awareness of sustainability problems and establish an online community of supporters. Twitter.com for example hosts many environmental websites and magazine accounts that allows these mediums to speak directly to their supporters. This allows better fluidity in project choice and implementation. These new media sites puts the responsibility of spreading awareness into the hands of the audience; this shared responsibility might encourage more appreciation for the cause and make each person feel more important in the means towards a solution.
12. Identify ten developments (in education, law, media, etc) that you think would help mobilize greater public awareness of and commitment to environmental sustainability.
I think there is much potential for raising awareness of and commitment to environmental sustainability, but it will require dedicated revolutionaries and creativity. In the following I will propose ten possible developments that I think, if put into effect, could change the public atmosphere or developments that are already in effect. One development that could improve public awareness would be to create an sustainability propaganda campaign that produces commercials and an online movement, similar to the anti-tobacco company commercials made by “the truth” initiative. Another development could focus on initiating a sustainability course option in high school curriculums and a requirement in college curriculums. With more Americans attending college, shedding light onto a sustainability problems that students need to understand and eventually deal with would breathe awareness into the youth generation. The AASHE, or Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, leads programs and provides resources free for any college/university campus to use and begin to implement. Also, creating a more focuses celebration of Earth Day, extending beyond just April 22nd, mandated in public schools in every state would additionally raise awareness and appreciation for the environment at an even younger age. Implementing local small hydropower plants would increase community awareness and commitment to sustainability because of the closeness of an energy generator. Additionally, it would provide deeper appreciation for local environments. Granted this could only be successful in regions with adequate, yearly water supply. Another development to mobilize greater public awareness would be for health clinics and pharmacy companies to begin linking health issues to climate changes. Problems such as obesity and asthma might be direct effects of people’s habits that contribute to environmental pollution and thus sustainability problems. Shifting the environmental responsibility to state government and awarding low carbon emission states with externalities would create competiveness and incentives to drive down emissions from state funded and non-state funded corporations and plants. Providing company rebates or store rebates to customers who purchase environmentally friendly household appliances could reach the public in an area most are acutely aware of: money. One development that is gaining momentum in many affluent suburban and urban areas is the shift of public transport to reducing carbon emissions. Alternative fuel transit buses have been researched by the Federal and State government as a means to increase ridership, reduce costs, and reduce emissions. Implementing a development in popular grocery stores in cities and towns could also reach out to the public; completely eliminating or offering paper alternatives to plastic bags would raise awareness and acknowledgement of sustainability problems as well as reducing waste and encouraging recycling. Another development, already in place, would be web-based movements that are available for the public to reach out to. Websites like 350.org, Transition US, and ClimateCounts.org preach their own philosophies and solutions to sustainability problems, encouraging people to take action within their community and to become facilitators to spread awareness. With programs suggested above riding on programs already in place, individual people have an opportunity to learn about commit to a change in lifestyle to in regards to sustainability problems.